Designing Woman (The Sloan Brothers Book 2) (7 page)

He was moving again.  The man had the refractory period of a beating heart.

“You’ve got a key Anton and you knew where to find me.  You didn’t have to miss me at all.”

His mouth found mine for another heart racing kiss.

“I needed time.  I was getting too attached.”

Stop the ride, this was new.  Attached?  Anton-run-from-the-”L”-word Sloan?

“You avoided me because you were feeling attached to me?  Sloan, what do you call this?  We can’t stay away from each other for any length of time because we need this from one another.  How do you think this is going to end?”

He put his forehead against mine and started moving faster.

“It’s not going to end.  This will never end Melody.  I can’t believe you don’t know that.”

Time to give the man a dose of reality.

“So you think that once I decide I’m ready to settle down and start a family, that I’ll still have you on the side?  Never gonna happen Anton.”

I moaned because he hit the right spot and I was seeing stars.  He smiled and kissed me softly, his hands still on my cheeks.

“What isn’t going to happen, is you settling down and starting a family.  You’re like me.  We’re not the settling down types.  We’re the make-each-other-crazyuntil-the-end-of-time types.  You need this as much as I do.  Admit it.”

“I’ll never deny the chemistry, we both know that would be a lie.  But I will eventually settle down.  If you can’t see that in me, then you don’t know me as well as you think you do.  When I find the right man, I’ll settle down.”

We finished in flames and fireworks like we always do, but I rattled him.  I could see it.  He moved to my side and pulled me into his body, curling into me from behind.  We dozed and he woke me up twice more before morning.  When the alarm went off at eight, he was gone.

I came stumbling down the hall, fresh from the shower, dressed in Bohemian Chic.  My bell bottom jeans and tie-dyed shirt with the macrame belt around the middle, looked retro and reflected my mood.  A jumble of color with very little focus.  Anton had undone me last night and now I felt like I was standing on a quaking fault line.  It was always like that when he did a hit and run.  His sneak attack might mean that we were “on again”, or it might mean that I wouldn’t hear from him for another six weeks.  There was no way of knowing.

As I rounded the corner, I heard Sean and Ayla at it again and two male voices laughing in the background.  A full house.  I smiled and shuffled into the kitchen.

“Morning.”

I said this with no real volume or enthusiasm as I poured myself a cup of coffee and took a seat for the show.  Ayla was focused on Sean who was denying something with vehemence and conviction.

“I am not a whore Ayla.  I’m not ready to settle down.  So there’s nothing wrong with my random dating, I’m sampling the selection.  How will I find Mr. Right if I haven’t worked my way through a few Mr. Wrong’s?”

“So that’s what we’re calling it now.  You’re right Sean.  You’re not a whore.  You’re a slut.”

Sean shrugged and topped his coffee cup off.

“Semantics.”

Chase started rolling with laughter and raised his palm for a high-five from Sean.  I relaxed and took a deep breath.  If Chase and Austin were this comfortable with Sean, then we were probably going to be good friends.  Sean was the most flamboyant friend I had and I wouldn’t change him for anything in the world.  If anyone else wasn’t okay with him, they could find their way out the same way they found their way in.

I caught Sean checking out Austin and Chase over his coffee cup.  The men were preparing breakfast for the masses and they were doing it wearing nothing but pajama pants.  Their chests were chiseled and worthy of book covers about hulking Highlanders or soul stealing Doms.  Chiseled and tan and tapered into those drawstring flannel jammie pants.  Sean caught my eye and he winked, putting his thumb and index finger together then pulling slowly in mid air. I knew exactly what he meant.  One good tug and it would be goodbye jammie pants.  We grinned and sipped our coffee.  Ayla watched us both and rolled her eyes.

Chase cleared his throat.

“So Mel’...I couldn’t help but notice someone crept through early this morning.  You don’t set an alarm?”

I shrugged.

“It was Anton.  He comes and goes.  I set the alarm when I remember, but he has the keycode.  He’s set off too many false alarms by forgetting to disarm the alarm system when he stealths in.  I got tired of paying the fee for his screw ups.”

“You really should use the alarm and make him pay the fee if he forgets to deactivate it.  You set the precedence by letting him do as he pleases.  You’re better than that.”

Austin’s words struck a nerve.  Something about him telling me that I was better than the person that allowed Anton open access whenever he wanted it, made me squirm.  I’d been wondering that about myself a lot lately.  Last night at the bar, Austin and I had a spark.  He felt it just like I did.  Anton was so jealous he showed up in the middle of the night to make sure that spark didn’t turn into a flame.  He needed to remind me who I belonged to.  But who did I belong to?  He was quick to react in fits of jealousy, but he’d write me off if the mood struck.  What did that mean exactly and what did I want or expect?  Austin was right.  I was setting a dangerous precedence and I had no one to blame but myself.

“You’re right Austin.  I need to give this some serious thought.”

He turned from the counter where he’d been chopping vegetables for omelettes and looked at me.

“Let me know what you figure out.”

He turned back around and continued chopping, but I understood the implication.  He wouldn’t hold last night against me because we hadn’t started anything yet.  I had a feeling that if we did however, the security code would be changed and it’s activation would be an every night occurrence.

“I think we’re gonna make it!”

Sean’s declaration could have been a jinx, but with the last model leaving and the last alteration on his sewing machine, I couldn’t hold it against him.

“Of course we’re gonna make it.  You had doubts?”

I poured him another cup of coffee from the carafe that Austin had brought in earlier.  Those men were coming in handy.  They fixed breakfast and cleaned up afterwards.  I had yet to meet a man that would do that without asking.

Sean stopped sewing to enjoy his coffee while it was hot.

“Mel’, what’s the story with the hotties in the kitchen?  Are we hiring galley slaves now?  For the record, I’m all for the idea.  Wherever did you find them?”

Ayla poked her head up from the mountain of paperwork she was sorting through on her desk.

“Hey slut muffin.  One of those hotties is my brother.  For the record, they’re both as straight as arrows.”

Sean shooed her protest with a gesture and a wink.

“Nice gene pool there Ayla.  I know they’re straight.  Believe me.  More to the point, I’d know if they weren’t.  The question is, what are they doing here?”

I shot a look at Ayla because frankly, I didn’t exactly know why they were here or why Ayla was shacking up with Pierce.  I fell into line because she was my friend.  But in the cold gray light of dawn, I had a few questions myself.

She squirmed under the scrutiny and I had a decision to make.  I could let her off the hook or force her to ‘fess up.  Since the parties in question seemed a tad overly concerned about my security measures, I opted for the question and answer part of the program.

I turned and focused on Ayla who obviously wished I’d distract Sean.  Not gonna happen.

“Ayla, I know this is uncomfortable to you and you know that the three of us are as close as family.  I’ve done my best not to pry into your past or personal life, but I think we’re in neck deep now.  If there’s something we should know, then I’d rather hear it from you.  Why did you and Austin have to clear out of your place?”

Her shoulders sagged with what looked like the weight of the world as she stood.  She walked to us and poured herself a cup of coffee before she sat down behind the serger and looked at both of us somberly.  We were both facing her, braced for whatever we were about to hear.

“You’re right.  There’s a good shot you’re both in danger by association and it’s not right for me to keep this from you.  I’m not going to ask you to keep my secret Mel’, because Chase has already told Deacon.  That’s how we decided to leave the apartment.  But I will ask that it doesn’t leave your family.  Sean?  Sorry buddy, but you can’t tell or talk to anyone about this but us.  You’ll understand in a minute.”

Something told me that I was about to hear something I’d later regret asking about.  She swallowed a couple of times and brushed her hair behind her shoulders.  Ayla had a few nervous ticks and we just saw two of them.

“Austin, Chase, and I grew up in Boston.  Not in the nice part, but in the part that you don’t hear much about.  The neighborhood isn’t important so we’ll skip that part.  Let’s just say Chase lived next door and we’ve known him all of our lives.  He’s from a long line of cops, so it was expected that he’d be one too.  He loved it, and being promoted came fast.  He’s from this close family that loved him and his sister.   In our eyes, mine and Austin’s, he had it made.  Our folks thought their obligation to us ended at birth.  Finally, they left us when Austin was seventeen and I was fifteen.  Austin worked his ass off to keep us out of foster care.  Once he hit eighteen, it was easier, but it was still tough.  I started working at sixteen and together, we managed a life.”

“He took a part-time job to supplement his night job.  He was a courier and he made great tips.  Tips that added up in savings and allowed us both to continue our education.  I wouldn’t be here without Austin, for all kinds of reasons.”

“One of the businesses that requested him on a regular basis, was Marconi’s Gym.”

Sean raised his hand and Ayla cocked her head at him, probably wondering why he was raising his hand.  She nodded in his direction.

“I’ll admit I’m a neophyte when it comes to sports of any kind, but does that have anything to do with Paul Marconi the boxer? Even I’ve heard of HIM.”

Ayla was nodding before he could finish his last sentence.

“One and the same.  Pauley opened the gym when he retired, in order to train other boxers.  One of which was his son, Anthony.  I knew him as Tony, and when I met him, he was on his way up.  No back alley matches for Tony, Pauley was training him for the World Championships.  Tony was tough.  He could throw a punch and more importantly, he could take one.”

“How did you meet him?”

I had to ask because I felt like we were getting off track and I wanted to get the significant bits out while Ayla was willing to talk.  We could pry the incidentals out of her later.

She took a sip of her coffee and cleared her throat.  That was her third nervous habit and I knew we were heading into deep water.

“Austin got the flu and he was down for almost ten days.  Boston winters are brutal and that winter was a particularly bad one.  The thing was, we couldn’t afford to lose his income.  I couldn’t do anything about his full-time job, he had a forged I.D. and was a bouncer in a club, but I could make his deliveries, so I did.  There weren’t loads of them, but I froze my ass off to get everything where it needed to be on time.  We had an old Subaru with four-wheel-drive that made it through the snow okay and that was a blessing.  Anyway, one of the calls came from Marconi’s Gym.”

She took a deep breath and glanced at us to make sure we were still with her.  We were sipping coffee and glued to her every word.

“I walked in practically frozen to death.  The place smelled like sweat and disinfectant and seemed to be inhabited by giants.  I mean seriously, these were the biggest men I’d ever been around.  Anyone that tells you that Italians are predisposed to being small, smack them in the mouth and send them to Marconi’s.  They weren’t steroid big either.  They were working hard in that gym.”

“I asked one of the trainers where the office was, and he pointed it out.  I had to walk between four boxing rings to get to it.  It was in the back.  Two of the rings were occupied by guys sparring.  One of those guys, was Pauley’s son Tony.  He caught my eye because he was the only one with black hair long enough to wear in a short ponytail.  Something about his focus and his size made me stop for a minute to watch.  A bell rang and he stopped as well.  He happened to look my way and froze.  Those dark eyes pinned me to the floor and I couldn’t breathe.  When he smiled, I felt my heart race.  I was only seventeen and he was in his early twenties, twenty-one or twenty-two, but it didn’t matter.  I was in trouble and I knew it.  Something told me to move, so I tore my eyes away from him and made a beeline for the office.”

We were riveted now.  Hunky Italian giants?  Even Sean was squirming.

“His father was a doll.  A real gentleman.  Once I explained why I was there instead of Austin, he tipped me a hundred bucks before I’d even made the delivery and asked for our address.  He could tell I was hesitating, but then he explained that his wife made a wonderful chicken soup and he’d deliver some to Austin himself.  I thawed and gave him the address, then thanked him for his kindness and concern.  He stood, kissed both my cheeks, then handed me a thick manila envelope that needed to be delivered to another gym about eight blocks away.  I knew where it was, so that was a plus.  I thanked him again, buttoned my coat, and slid the envelope into my messenger bag.  When I turned to leave, I slammed into this mountain of flesh.  Tony had been standing right behind me in the doorway.”